Category: Digital Marketing

Moving to a new home is the 7th most stressful event in life, according to Thrive Global. When I moved my family to South Carolina, it certainly felt overwhelming. It was tough. How can you find the right home, especially if you don’t know the area? There were all sorts of questions swirling through my mind. Which schools are best? Where do we need to live to get into the those schools? Is there an HOA? Will the HOA let me have my dog? Is there a realtor that understands that our dog is part of our family? Are there dog parks close by? Where’s the closest pet hospital? Where will we want to live once we meet people and develop relationships? How do we know if we’re making the right choice?

Fortunately, we quickly met some helpful people who lead us to the right realtor, and we were able to purchase our home before it even went on the market. We love our house, and quite honestly, it’s the first place I’ve ever felt at home. Unfortunately, there are tons of people who haven’t been so lucky.

Whether you’re looking for beach front condos for sale in South Carolina, homes for sale in Heather Lakes Little River, or have no idea where you want to live, Cathy Honeycutt’s got you covered. She’s got a her finger on the pulse in the area, and she’s passionate about animals. In fact, she’s so passionate about animals that she wanted Greyphin to design her website so that other pet lovers looking for a home could use it as a repository of resources. And, that’s exactly what we did.

Oh, and by the way, when I asked Cathy how she helped her clients know they were making the right decision she said, “When you find a home where your pet’s as happy as your are, you’ll know you made the right choice.”

I know you’ve got a lot to do. You’re busy. You’ve probably even got a toothbrush at work for those days when you justbarely got your kids to school on time. I get it. I got a stomach bug last year and thought it was the best vacation I’d ever had. We’ve got more demands on our lives than ever. With a loud world, comes confusion. With confusion, comes chaos. And, with chaos… comes exhaustion. There are so many inputs vying for our attention that it’s difficult to tell where to spend it. Everyone has a company. Everyone has a cause… And, everything wants your attention.

Take a break. Go play. And, make a difference.

Coastal Adaptive Sports, with the help of Adaptive Surf Project, is changing the world. For real. In the last year they’ve established the first adaptive beach in Cartagena, provided a venue and adaptive sports equipment for athletes of all abilities to play wheelchair basketball, taken six adaptive surfers and their support teams to San Diego to compete in the ISA National Surfing Championship, provided weekly chances to go cycling, and hosted 10 adaptive surfing camps. These guys have adaptive sports and recreation on lockdown, and they’re just friends hanging out. Seriously, no one’s paid. It’s not charity, it’s friendship, and it’s amazing to be a part of.

There are a ton of North Myrtle Beach dental offices, but there’s only one Carolina Family Dental. Doctors Davis and Landino have built a prodigious dental practice. While they provide their patients with comprehensive dental care, they specialize in cosmetic dentistry. They understand the connection between looking good, feeling good, and doing good. And, they use that understanding to transform their patients lives by transforming their smiles.

When we sat down with Dr. Davis to discuss this dental website project, we asked him why a dentist in the Myrtle Beach area needs a website. He let us know that no matter how great of a job he and his team do, they still need people to be able to find them online. Furthermore, they wanted to have the best dental clinic website in the area to reflect the quality of care they provide their patients. So with style, quality, and SEO in mind, the designers at Greyphin set out to build Carolina Family Dental the best dental clinic website in the state of South Carolina.

We’re proud to announce the launch of Carolina Family Dental’s new website, YourCarolinaSmile.com. Take a look and let them know how much you like what you see.

For more info on how you can grow your business with effective digital marketing, book a call with one of our Web Guides at Greyphin.

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Mitch Guiffre, and what a pleasure it was. Kind but direct, unassuming but a force to be reckoned with, this guy has turned Myrtle Beach real estate sales on its head. His staff of full-time agents are outselling the competition by 4X. So, how do they do it?

Mitch spent years working for the other guys, and frustrated by big name real estate companies and their desire to maintain the status quo, he set out to tackle a problem no one wanted to talk about. He was going to sell homes and actually make the owners some money.

You see, Mitch pays his agents a competitive full-time salary, plus commission. But here’s the kicker, while the average real estate transaction consumes 6% commission on each sale, effectively eating up the seller’s profits, Seller’s Choice has found a way to reduce commissions to 4.5%, leaving his clients with more cash in their pockets.

Intrigued by the idea of giving more to make more, I decided Greyphin had to work with Mitch and his team on this Myrtle Beach web design project. So, we set out to design a website as incredible as the team that sells 4 times as many homes in a year as the average real estate agent.

Determined to get it right, the designers at Greyphin have worked closely with Mitch and his team. And, this is what they’ve come up with. We’re proud to announce the launch of SellersChoiceRealEstate.com. Stop by and take a look around. If you like what you see, visit us at Greyphin.com.

Does your backyard look like it belongs on the set of the Shining? Is it so scary that even your dog won’t go out at night. Well, maybe it’s time to get that hideous monstrosity under control. Seriously. If alligators can’t be bothered to play in your pond, in coastal South Carolina, you’ve got some real issues.

Caleb Wiggins and his adept team of Palmettoscapers are ready to help you conquer that lawn. Be terrified no longer. Throw that quinceañera without worrying about losing your children in the corn. Palmettoscapes has been making backyards beautiful for the better part of a decade, and they’ve never met a landscaping problem they didn’t have a solution for.

Purdy Schools, of Purdy Missouri, are taking a tech based and proactive approach toward filling their halls with students that are eager to learn and accomplished teachers that are ready to support them.

Dr. Chancellor, superintendent, and his excellent team understand the world is full of technological solutions to problems that may not exist yet. Furthermore, they recognize every student needs to have leading technologies incorporated into their everyday learning environments if the students going to succeed.

This is why Dr. Chancellor and his team have decided to move forward with a new Greyphin website that will showcase how they’re handling the educational challenges this ever changing world has to offer.

Thanks to Robin Williams (no, not the actor) and her signature book, this cheeky little acronym will help you remember the core principles you need to create designs that keep your audience engaged.

Let’s look at how each of these principles can be used to make your message clearer and more compelling to your customers.

Contrast

Contrast is what we use to show the reader what is most important. Clearly identify the main thing, and then build your page to highlight it. The last thing you want is for your reader to be confused because your contrast is weak and elements on your page are only “kind of different.” Be contrast-strong! This can be achieved through: large/small font, cool/warm colors, small/large graphics, etc.

Take a look at the difference between these two images. Notice how color, text size, and message importance can be conveyed or neglected depending on a strong or weak contrast. Below each colored design is how that graphic looks in grayscale.

Pick a small color palette and a few shapes and typefaces and repeat those to make your design organized. Generally, I recommend picking between 2-3 colors, shapes, and typefaces and using those over and over within the same graphic or document. Let the color wheel guide your color choices, and get to know complementary colors. If you want to use two colors, pick a color you like and go directly across the color wheel. For three colors, pick a color you like and then divide the circle into thirds, where the lines fall are the other two ideal colors to use.

Alignment

There is no better way to create a confused user, and look like an amatuer than to have poor alignment. Your goal is to guide your reader through your content. Alignment ensures that the user’s eye flows to each part of your information.

Tip #3 ) Give up on centering your text.

One, it looks quite messy. Two, the uneven and jagged edges are hard on your reader’s eye. A quick change to left or right alignment will help your user know where to start and stop.

Here are two business cards. No color or graphics here, just focus on the alignment. What might it “speak” to you about my work?

Proximity

Things that relate should stick together. Create relationships on your page between graphics and text. Don’t spread out your design. We can only process a limited number of elements at a time. Grouping things makes it feel like there are fewer elements and keeps from overloading your reader.

Tip #4) Whitespace is your friend.

By having whitespace on your document, you help to give a visual hierarchy to the elements on your page, telling the reader what is most important and what to look at first.

And not to compare apples to oranges here (or in this case juice and whiskey) but take a look at these websites. You can see how the whitespace keeps the distillery’s website looking modern and clean, while the juice site looks way too busy.

So there you have it. The four cornerstones of design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity will help you communicate more clearly to your customers through all of your design. Now go give ‘em tons of CRAP!

Businesses want their digital marketing to get them in front of the right people, make them look good, and get people to buy from them. The problem is, they’re unsure if their website is doing any of that.

Maybe your site doesn’t show up on Google when people search for your industry. Or you hope it doesn’t show up, because you’re embarrassed by what people would see if they actually went there. Or maybe you’ve spent a lot of money on a custom site but now you feel taken advantage of because you can’t tell whether your site is getting you more business or not.

The worst part is, you don’t know what to do about it. You know you need to be marketing online. But digital marketers are hard to trust when they seem bent on confusing you with all of their buzz words and techno-babble.

We feel your pain. You deserve to know what you’re paying for, and so do your customers. That’s why we’ve teamed up with StoryBrand to bring simplicity and clarity to your digital marketing. Using the StoryBrand framework, 1000’s of businesses have clarified their message and increased revenues, some having doubled, tripled, and quadrupled their sales in less than 6 months! How did they do it? Communicating more clearly.

Now, as a StoryBrand Certified Guide, Greyphin is excited to bring that same clarity to your company, and it starts with your website. We want to remove the mystery surrounding online marketing so you can be confident that you’re getting what you’ve paid for, that your message is getting through to your audience, and that you can turn your audience into buyers.

So if you feel like your online marketing is confusing, stressing you out, or non-existent, here are 3 steps to help you regain clarity.

Pop the following query into Google, “Marketing definition”, and you’ll get this:

mar·ket·ing

(noun)

the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Other sites also include steps such as “identification, selection, and development of a product”. While technically correct, at this point, the latter items are about as germane to you as a guide on raising horses when your thoroughbred is already being led to the starting gate.

You already have a product. And now, you need to skillfully present and promote it, while gathering the necessary information to further target your prospective consumers and really kick in the metaphorical afterburners.

You must sense how critical a great website is to your marketing plan, or you wouldn’t have landed on a website that promotes… well, website services. What you may not fully understand (yet) is how and how much your site can help your sales realize their full potential.

Over 80% of folks begin their search for a product with a trip to a search engine (much as you just did). The general consensus is that the number is even higher when it comes to service searches. The lack of a website immediately places your product at a 4-to-1 disadvantage to your competitors who feature one. By the same token, having a killer site places you head and shoulders above your siteless competition (and at least a head above those who let a well meaning, but talentless nephew create one for them).

A top-tier site ensures that you will always create a great first impression (a tie-in to the title, cool, eh?). One click of a search result and there you are, instantly communicating a sense of credibility, trust, as well as the impression that (to quote Rick in Casablanca), “…this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”. The right layout: clean, fresh, and inviting, will hold your visitors attention. A great logo, font, and colors will reinforce the impression that your company is worthy of further exploration. And positive reviews will go miles towards furthering the perception of credibility.

With the best possible version of your marketing message placed near the top of your front page, you can reinforce the prospect’s sense that they’re in the right place. Then with photos, dynamic videos, and a drop-down highlighting employees, you can establish a sense of familiarity before you get to person-to-person contact.

Any marketing plan of today pretty much has to include social media. Having said that, social media by itself is a lost child. That might seem a bit harsh, but have you ever done a web search, clicked a link, and then been directed to a static Facebook page? You probably received a pic of the front of the business, 2-3 snapshots of something product related, and maybe a few comments: “One of the best high colonics I’ve ever received!” DON’T be that business. Solid social media exists to bring the customer to your website. In turn your site can refer folks (“like us on Facebook!”) who are already familiar with your company to a fun place to engage with others around your principal message.

If marketing is about promoting and selling your products and services, then your website traffic is a veritable goldmine of insight and research data. Solid web analytics keep you grounded in reality so you can fine tune your message and narrow your target focus. How long does a typical visitor stay on a your landing page? Which additional pages receive the most attention? Are there particular parts of your site which prompt contact better than others? Your site’s lead generating email forms, won’t just provide you with contact information, but a list of folks who are so motivated that they will actually fill out the damned things!

No matter how dedicated you and your employees are, everyone needs to sleep. Sick days happen and an occasional vacation is nice. Having stated the obvious, with an online presence, your best foot is forward 24/7/365, maintaining that positive exposure that is so crucial to your business plan.

Business promotion, brand awareness, lead generating, and research…all perfectly addressed by a well-made website. Ready to create one? Let’s chat.

Running a small business is big work. Fortunately for you, there are some stellar tools out there that can make that work a little more manageable. Here’s our list of the 5 Softwares Every Small Business Needs to Use:

GSuite: Everything you need in one package. Google’s been providing the world with solid business solutions since Britney Spears got married… the first time. With GSuite, you can connect to your clients and colleagues via Gmail, create collaborative documents with Google Docs and Google Sheets, access and store files in the cloud with Google Drive, and control your data by managing users and devices. Google designed these tools with business in mind.

Trello: Make lists not war. This productivity management software helps you efficiently move projects from concept to completion. Time’s a limited resource, and unless you’re Hiro Nakamura, you only have 24 hours in a day. So make those hours count, with Trello.

Hubspot: Close deals faster by selling smarter not harder. This handy little tool is more than just a customer relations manager. It’s an inbound marketing and sales platform that allows you to attract strangers, convert them to leads, and make them your customers. And without customers, this whole business thing’s just busy-ness.

Quickbooks Online: Smarter business tools for the world’s hardest workers. With over 4.3 million users, QBO knows a thing or two about making accounting more tolerable. Whether you need to track income and expenses, digitally invoice and accept payments, or maximize your tax deductions, you can with Quickbooks Online.

MailChimp: Build your brand. Sell more stuff. Small businesses need marketing automation, and people around the world are sending 1 billion automated emails every day using MailChimp. Whether you want to build your brand or sell products via the internet, you need to spread the word. Because as Derby Brown always said, “The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising, sooner or later finds itself immune to business.” Build your business with MailChimp.